Mānoa Wai Kamaha‘o

Kainani Kahaunaele

The ahupua‘a of Hā‘ena, Kaua‘i, is nestled in the Nā Pali cliffs between the valleys of Wainiha and Hanakapī‘ai. Cliff-lined Hā‘ena consists of two valleys: Mānoa to the east, and Limahuli to the west. Mānoa is the shallower of the two and is fronted by the reef and lagoon of Makua; the considerably deeper Limahuli is fronted, in turn, by the reef and lagoon of Kē‘ē. Mānoa is easily identified by the twin formations that jut, almost incongruously, from its ridgeline: these are called Nā Piliwale after a pair of voracious kupua sisters who were turned to stone while fleeing the rays of the morning sun. “Mānoa Wai Kamaha‘o” was composed on a hālau visit to Kaua‘i’s north shore; although its haku mele claims to have never before experienced the beauty of Mānoa (“‘Akahi au a ‘ike i kou nani”), Kainani Kahaunaele is unmistakably familiar with the song-writing traditions and vocabulary of Kaua‘i, her ‘āina hānau. Notice, for example, her reference to the ua loku rains of Hanalei and her careful use of the word naue (“to move”), a word that creates a geographical bridge between Hanalei and Mānoa (the plain of Naue lies between the two), that echoes Lizzie ‘Alohikea’s “Nani Kaua‘i,” and that demonstrates her sensitivity to the negative poetic connotations of the more common and predictable hele.

© Kainani Kahaunaele, 2000